{"id":7516,"date":"2014-09-08t17:02:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-08t21:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/?p=7516"},"modified":"2019-10-17t15:38:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17t19:38:35","slug":"build-cringe-worthy-primavera-p6-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/build-cringe-worthy-primavera-p6-schedule\/","title":{"rendered":"a go-to guide to building a cringe-worthy primavera p6 schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"
the meeting had gone well. i was going to win some business and they were going to get complete primavera p6\u00a0training<\/a> for 10 schedulers. the day was looking up, until he asked me, as i was just about to head out the door, “would you mind looking a schedule over for me? it should only take you a few minutes.<\/p>\n we just hired a new scheduler and he put it together. i’d like your opinion on it.” “um….ok.” i said. “send it over.” i knew i was in trouble at “um.”<\/p>\n once i’d opened up p6, imported the xer and clicked activities,\u00a0i was completely stymied<\/a> by what was supposed to be a professional primavera p6 project schedule. and it didn’t end up just\u00a0taking a few minutes. maybe you’ve been in the same situation in your job; perhaps you were sent a contractor’s schedule to review, or maybe you inherited\u00a0a “less than ideal” schedule from someone else, or maybe you work as a forensic analyst<\/a> and see this sort of thing all the time.<\/p>\n putting a schedule together is almost never an easy and straightforward task. the lengthy process of building a project schedule in primavera p6 can be riddled with pitfalls, tradeoffs and poor practices<\/a> that can lead to poorly prepared schedules. so this post is going to present some of the worst practices we’ve seen in the building of primavera p6 schedules. if none of these apply to you, congratulations! consider this an entertaining read at lunch. if you have fallen victim to some of these practices, don’t worry – we’ll see if we can straighten your project out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n imagine trying to send an email from a computer that is not connected to the network. nowadays, if it’s not connected, your pc isn’t\u00a0doing much good. now imagine a project schedule with 450 activities that have no predecessor or successor relationships. same idea. a project schedule is really just\u00a0a network of interconnected tasks put into a thoughtful order of execution. without the relationships, you don’t have a network. and you don’t have an accurate critical path as there is no path to<\/em> an activity with missing relationships (or perhaps no path from<\/em> an activity if we’re talking about open ends).<\/p>\n leave no activity un-linked. that is, any activity that is a workable task should have a predecessor and a successor. the only exceptions are the project’s first and last activities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n i don’t know about you, but one of the very first things i look for when i’m shown a schedule are the milestones. it’s the easiest way to get a sense for major deadlines and startups. so when i don’t see any, i get confused and quick. now think about the owner, client or project sponsor. milestones\u00a0are a necessity for tracking to major deliverables, the beginning or end of a project phase, or major events like materials showing up or approvals.<\/p>\n pick out the big dates in your schedule and use p6’s “start milestone” or “finish milestone” activity type to highlight those events in your project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n if you’re really going for a project that’s vague and ambiguous, then you should consider using lots of one-word activity names to add some mystery to what your crew is working on. try some of these\u00a0descriptions:<\/p>\n maybe “excavate” makes perfect sense in the context of that activity being under the wbs element “area 3, west end (10+320 to 10+430)”<\/strong>. \u00a0but\u00a0if you ever use p6’s tools to regroup, filter or sort, you may not always see the wbs, leaving that activity to any number of interpretations you don’t have time to consider. using too many abbreviations can have the same effect. sometimes more is best. maybe your client doesn’t know that “ascmac” stands for\u00a0aluminized corrugated steel metal arch culvert. (but maybe you don’t want to type it out 90 times either….i know. typing can suck. tip below.)<\/span><\/p>\n be clear in your activity descriptions. include a well-defined action on all activities, and a location if\u00a0you are repeating the same work elsewhere.\u00a0 we’ve already given you some tips on this.<\/a>\u00a0spelling counts! tip: don’t forget about p6’s “find & replace” feature. you can use the ctrl+r key combo in the activity name column to replace an abbreviation\u00a0with a longer description throughout your schedule in a few seconds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n why would you create a resource called “cash” or “interest” and assign it to your activities? this is some sort of workaround that sounds painful and confusing. it’s true -p6 does not always shine when it comes to managing costs, but some of the 世界杯时间比赛时间
i’ve seen are just weird….like “travel”.<\/p>\n stick to letting 世界杯时间比赛时间
be 世界杯时间比赛时间
. use the expenses area \/ tab to track any fixed costs that are not resource related. if you need more firepower, then i would recommend doing it right with a package like ares prism or just plain old excel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n for those of you who know even a little about primavera p6, you’ll probably remember the familiar id numbering sequence “a1000, a1010, a1020, a1030…etc.” it’s pretty much accepted that a p6 schedule will increment by 10’s to allow space to add extra activities with numbers that fit in-between – a1015 for example.<\/p>\n11 ways to build a cringe-worthy\u00a0primavera p6 schedule<\/h2>\n
1. link only half of your activities together<\/h3>\n
here’s how to fix it.<\/h4>\n
2. don’t bother with milestones<\/h3>\n
how to fix it.<\/h4>\n
3. being\u00a0vague is best<\/h3>\n
\n
here’s how to fix it.<\/h4>\n
4.\u00a0cost-load non-resource\u00a0costs with 世界杯时间比赛时间
<\/h3>\n
here’s how to fix it.<\/h4>\n
5. increment\u00a0activity ids by 1’s<\/h3>\n